It took a little reading between the lines, but it wasn’t terribly difficult to figure out.

Jon Fitch’s quickest path to another welterweight title shot is likely to come if interim champion Carlos Condit beats champ Georges St-Pierre next month at UFC 154 in St-Pierre’s home city of Montreal.

If GSP wins? Well …

Fitch (24-4-1 MMA, 14-2-1 UFC) on Saturday beat Erick Silva (14-3 MMA, 2-2 UFC) by unanimous decision on the main card of UFC 153 in Silva’s home country of Brazil.

It perhaps flew a little under the radar, but the victory was Fitch’s first in more than two years. After a unanimous decision win over Thiago Alves at UFC 117 in August 2010, Fitch fought to a draw with B.J. Penn at UFC 127. And after some time off due to injury, he fought Johny Hendricks at UFC 141 – and was knocked out in just 12 seconds.

After more injury layoffs, Fitch finally returned healthy against Silva and put on what really may have been his best performance since before he got his first shot at St-Pierre’s belt at UFC 87 in August 2008.

Long derided by critics for his style and lack of finishes in recent years, the former Purdue wrestler came close to finishing Silva with both submissions and strikes. He also was put into a couple of precarious submissions himself by Silva. Both fighters survived the fight, but it was Fitch who went home with a 29-28 unanimous decision win.

The Indiana native and American Kickboxing Academy mainstay started his career 8-0 before getting his shot at GSP. But the champ dominated the fight, as he has done with all of his opponents since recapturing the belt at UFC 83. It appears UFC President Dana White hasn’t forgotten St-Pierre’s five-round shutout of Fitch, which is why he alluded to being hesitant at throwing Fitch back in against the champ should GSP beat Condit and Fitch rattle off a few more wins.

“Will he have to go on another eight-fight win streak? I don’t know. We’ll see,” White told a small group of reporters following the UFC 153 post-event news conference in Rio de Janeiro. “The hard part about a guy like Fitch, as tough and durable as he is, he fought Georges St-Pierre, and it was very one-sided.

“The best thing that could happen to him is Carlos Condit wins. Know what I mean? He’s in a tough spot.”

And that’s the read-between-the-lines part. A few more Fitch wins, and a fight against Condit might make sense. But if St-Pierre remains champ, how much different would Fitch be the next time around?
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Fitch’s decision streak in his victories now stands at eight. His last finish came against Roan Carneiro in June 2007. And though his style has plenty of critics, White isn’t necessarily one of them.

“Fitch is a good fighter,” White said. “Everybody bitches about him laying on people. This is mixed martial arts. You’ve got to make it so he doesn’t do that to you. And for two rounds, Erick Silva did that.”

But Silva couldn’t in the third. He gassed out, and Fitch took advantage to finally get back in the win column. And when it comes to supposedly boring decision wins, at least this was a step in the right direction for Fitch to answer his critics. It may have been another decision, but it still earned the “Fight of the Night” bonus. So boring, it was not.

Now the question is how many more like that it will take to get him back into contention – and who the champ will be when that happens.

A total of 26 fighters got their chance to shine on Saturday as part of UFC 190 at Rio de Janeiro’s HSBC Arena. Now that UFC 190 is in the books, it’s time to commence MMAjunkie’s “Three Stars” ceremony.

The man known for cranking submissions to the point of injury added eye-gouging to his repertoire. But is the controversy of Rousimar Palhares too essential to his bizarre, awful appeal for his employers to take any meaningful action against him?